


Just Need A Minute

by Olivia_Ivy



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (it's never said but we know it happened), During Iron Man 1, Parent Missing Their Kid, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Vaguely Implied Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 02:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14906369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olivia_Ivy/pseuds/Olivia_Ivy
Summary: As far as the media was concerned, Tony Stark’s first steps on American soil after escaping his captors were in California. None of them knew he had a much more important stop to make first.(What if Peter was Tony's son during Iron Man 1?)





	Just Need A Minute

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in the middle of a pretty long _very_ whumpy-angsty Iron Dad  & Spider Son post-IW fic, and it got to the point where even _I_ needed to take a break and read something soft and sweet. Unfortunately, this tag is full of "I don't want to go" and general sadness, so I took a page out of Thanos's book and decided "Fine, I'll do it myself." And look how effective that was for him!
> 
> (please read the bottom note)

May Parker looked out at the city from the window over her kitchen sink. She’d been absentmindedly drying the same spot on a plate for almost five minutes. Ben came over and gently took the plate out of her hands.

“Wearing a hole in the plate,” he said, “is not going to make him come home.”

She sighed, “I know.” She looked over at the closed door in the hallway and thought of the sleeping boy behind it. “Remember all those times I wished he would just … go away?”

“May,” Ben said, taking her hands in his.

“I know, I know it’s not my fault,” she said, pulling her hands away and holding herself. “I _know_ that. But I still thought about it. And I wished it. And now …” She sighed, looking down the hall to Peter’s room again. “You know, after Richard and Mary, I thought ‘This is horrible, but at least Peter still has us and still has Tony.’ And now he might not even have that much.”

Ben pulled her in for a hug and rested his chin on the top of her head. “He still has us. Before Tony shoved his way into the picture, it was just the two of us and we promised we would be enough for him. We can do it again.” His large hand rubbed up and down her back and she released a shuddering breath. “We don’t even know for sure that we have to. Pepper told us they have everyone looking for him. They’re going to find him.”

“You don’t know that Ben,” May replied from where her face was buried in Ben’s broad chest.

He chuckled, shaking her lightly, “Yeah, and I also didn’t know how I was ever gonna convince you to marry me and look where we are now.” She laughed and looked up at him. May wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her toes to kiss him softly. A knock at the door interrupted them, and May stepped back. “Hey,” he said gently. “We’re going to be fine. I promise.”

She smiled and nodded, another knock sounding through the small apartment. May turned around and went to the front door, opening it without checking the hole in the door. She put her hand to her mouth, gasping softly.

“Hey, Aunt Hottie,” Tony Stark said from outside their Queens apartment. She was frozen to the spot, staring at him. Dimly, she was aware of Pepper standing behind Tony, and Ben coming up behind her. Tony smirked, “And here comes the scary husband, right on cue. How’ve you been, Ben?”

“Oh, you know, no complaints,” Ben said, and May could hear the grin in his voice. “How about you?”

Stark looked like hell warmed over, but he chuckled and rubbed his chest. “Never better.” That seemed to shake May out of her stupor, and she moved forward, wrapping Tony in a strong hug. He reciprocated, laughing again. “Good to see you, too, May,” he said. “Not that I don’t love this, but maybe we should wait until Scary Ben isn’t staring us down.”

That got a watery laugh out of May. “Always ruining the moment,” she said, stepping back.

“It’s his specialty,” Pepper said. She gestured toward the open apartment door. “May we come in?”

“Yes, yeah, of course,” May said. She stepped back and let the billionaire and his personal assistant into her home. She saw how Tony hunched, his shirt hanging off his chest. She had felt something oddly solid when she hugged him and assumed it was some kind of bandage or medical device - being MIA in Afghanistan for that long had to leave him with some kind of injury.

Stark looked around the apartment, trying to seem nonchalant, but visibly sagging when he noticed the absence of a certain seven-year-old. “He went to bed about an hour ago,” May explained. She moved magazines and jackets so the chairs and couch were available for the unexpected guests. Pepper took a seat, but Tony remained standing, eyes darting down the hall to Peter’s room.

“We didn’t know what to tell him,” Ben said. “He asked about you. Every day. We just said that you were busy and that you would call when you could.” Tony nodded.

“Can I,” he cleared his throat, “can I see him? I just need one minute.”

May nodded, leading Tony down the hall, and wasn’t that a sight? Tony Stark being led around a hole-in-the-wall apartment in the middle of the night. But that was the thing, May realized. When he was there, or when Peter was over at his place for holidays or school breaks, he wasn’t Tony Stark, billionaire playboy. He was Tony, Peter’s dad.

May opened the door and they looked in on the sleeping child. A beam of light from the hallway landed just under his chin, illuminating his soft face. He was lying on his belly, his head resting in his folded arms and turned toward the door. Long, dark lashes brushed his freckle-dusted cheeks. His mouth was slightly parted, showing the gap of one of his missing baby teeth. May smiled. His curly brown locks and round cheeks always made him look like a cherub when he was a baby, and it carried over to his childhood. She looked at Tony standing next to her. He was blinking rapidly, watching the rise and fall of Peter’s back as he breathed.

She gently prodded his arm, shaking him out of his thoughts. He looked at her, silently asking permission, and she smiled, opening the door wider. The light spread to Peter’s face, making him scrunch his eyes even further shut. Tony moved into the room, carefully stepping over books and toys scattered about. May shut the door nearly all the way and stood in the hall, watching through the crack in the door. She heard soft murmuring from the living room but focused on Tony.

He sat down at the foot of Peter’s bed. The jostling mattress is what finally woke the boy. He groggily opened his eyes and sat up. “Daddy?” he muttered. May couldn’t see from her position, but she could imagine Tony’s smile.

“Hey, Petey,” he said. Peter lit up and launched himself at Tony, wrapping his arms around Tony’s neck. Tony groaned in pain and Peter backed off. He squinted, reaching for his glasses folded on his nightstand. Tony caught his small hands and put them on his lap. “It’s okay, I just got a little sunburned in Afghanistan.”

Peter frowned. “You should have brought more sunscreen,” he said, sleep slightly slurring his words. “My geography teacher said that Afghanistan has a mostly warm desert climate. And May says you’re pasty.”

Tony laughed, turning towards where May was standing. “Really now? I wish someone had told me that before I went. Were you good for Aunt May and Uncle Ben while I was gone?”

“Uh-huh,” Peter said, nodding. May saw his lower lip begin to tremble. “Wh-why were you gone so long? I tried to-to call, but you di-didn’t ans-swer.” His breaths were coming in quicker, interrupting his words.

“Hey, hey,” Tony whispered. He brushed Peter’s curls back from his forehead and picked up his chin so their identical brown eyes met. “I’m so sorry, Bambi. I wanted to call you, every day. You have _no idea_ how much I wanted to see you the whole time I was away. I need to go back to California, but as soon as I’m home, I’ll call you, and I want you to tell me absolutely everything that you’ve done in the past few weeks. No detail too small, no story too boring, I want to hear it all. Okay?”

Peter nodded. “Okay, Daddy.”

“Okay,” Tony said. “Can I get a real hug now?”

Peter reached up and hugged Tony properly this time, and Tony wrapped his arms around the small boy. One of his hands cradled the back of Peter’s head and the other rubbed up and down his back. He held on for longer than he usually does, taking in shuddering breaths. “Daddy,” Peter’s muffled voice said, “you’re squishing me!”

“Oh, am I?” Tony laughed. He held on tighter, making Peter laugh and slap his arms against Tony. “My bad, is this better?” Tony held the wriggling boy even tighter, tickling his sides as well and Peter squealed.

“ _Daddy!_ ” Peter cried. He got his small hands in between the two of them and shoved Tony’s chest to get away. He looked confused for a second, putting his hands more solidly on Tony’s chest and squinting at it. “What’s under your shirt?” he asked.

Tony took his hands in his. “It’s what I was working on in Afghanistan. I’ll show it to you later. Right now, you need to go to bed, and so do I,” Tony brushed back Peter’s hair again and pressed a kiss to the young boy’s forehead. “I love you, Peter.”

“Love you, too, Daddy,” Peter tucked his head under Tony’s chin. He muttered something that May couldn’t hear, and Tony began rocking them back and forth slowly.

“I won’t, I promise, Bambi,” the man muttered, rocking gently until Peter’s soft breath evened out. Tony carefully laid the boy down and fixed the blankets so they covered him better.

May heard footsteps behind her and looked over her shoulder to see Pepper. May moved over so Pepper could see inside the small room. Tony hadn’t moved from where he was watching Peter sleep. “Tony,” the professional woman said, taking care not to wake the sleeping boy. “We need to go.”

He nodded, but still waited a beat before moving from the bed. Tony crossed the room, exiting and standing in the hall with the two women. He kept his gaze on Peter until May shut the door, breaking the spell. As soon as the connection was severed, he was back to being Tony Stark. He gave May a somewhat-convincing grin. “Thanks for that, May.”

She nodded. “Anytime,” she said. “Are you … okay?” she asked him.

Tony scoffed and adjusted his sleeves. “Oh, you know me. Stark men are made of iron, right?” he said, in lieu of an answer. May smiled anyway.

“Peter has a three-day weekend coming up in a few weeks. If you’re feeling better by then, would it be okay if Peter went to Malibu?” May offered. Tony was reluctant to ever ask for time with Peter but always pounced on the chance to have him over or just be with him at all. May figured Tony didn’t want them to think he was trying to steal their boy, which was ridiculous since Peter was his boy, too, but that’s Tony, May supposed.

“Yes, absolutely. I mean,” he coughed into his fist, “it depends on my workload at the time, but I should be able to. Text Pepper with more details as it gets closer,” he put on his sunglasses, despite being indoors and it being dark out already.

Back in the living room, Ben stood, waiting for them to come back. “Take care of yourself, Tony,” he said as the two Californians headed for the door.

“You too, Scary Ben,” Stark said. May and Ben walked the two to the door. “Like I said, text Pepper with more details for that weekend you mentioned. And,” he said, almost reluctantly, “if you have any new pictures, feel free to send them my way.”

The next morning, the news would report Tony Stark taking his first steps on American soil after weeks of captivity being in California. That night, however, Tony, Peter’s dad, stood outside a small Queens apartment, bashfully (as bashful as Tony could be, that is) asking for more pictures of his son.

May smiled, blinking back tears. “Of course,” she said.

**Author's Note:**

> Bambi is short for _bambino_ , the Italian word for "baby". Maria Stark was pretty Italian and May is pretty Italian, so you can choose that as your reason for Tony calling him Bambi. However, google "young Tom Holland" and tell me that precious boi is not Bambi, the cartoon deer from the Disney movie that I was never allowed to watch as a child (my parents thought it was too violent - joke's on them, I've spent the past 2 weeks binge watching Criminal Minds).
> 
> I have a lot of feelings about Kid!Peter and Dad!Tony. Especially after, you know, _literal torture_. Idk, maybe later I'll do Tony's thoughts in Afghanistan regarding Peter.
> 
> And hey, you've made it this far, you must somewhat like my work. [I am taking commissions,](https://olivia-ivy.tumblr.com/post/175201105579/commissions-are-open) if you like one, rules are right there.


End file.
